New Delhi: The Ahmedabad Crime Branch today arrested social activist Teesta Setalvad after being detained from Mumbai yesterday. She was produced before the court from where he was remanded in police custody till July 2.
Setalvad was detained from Mumbai yesterday after registering a fresh case of obstructing legal proceedings by falsely alleging forgery, criminal conspiracy and assault.
DCP (crime) Chaitanya Mandlik said that Crime Branch arrested former Gujarat DGP Sreekumar and they are trying to secure a transfer warrant to take former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt into custody. He said the Crime Branch was procuring documents submitted by Setalvad, Sreekumar and Bhat to the Commission of Inquiry, SIT and court.
Mandvik said, “The case is under investigation and they are getting the documents submitted by the accused to the Commission of Inquiry, the SIT and various courts.
He said the investigating officers believe that more people are also involved in this criminal conspiracy and the case is being investigated from the same angle. He said none of Srikumar and Setalvad were cooperating with the investigation.
Setalvad was handed over to the city crime branch early this morning after being brought here following which his arrest has been made, a crime branch source said. It may be recalled that he was brought to The Santacruz police station in Mumbai to inform the local police about Setalvad’s custody after he was taken into custody yesterday. From there a team of Gujarat Police brought them to Ahmedabad.
The action against Setalvad comes a day after the Supreme Court dismissed a petition challenging the clean chit given by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to former Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and others in the 2002 Godhra riots case. Setalvad and her NGO Zakia Jafri were the assistant petitioners in the petition filed against Modi and others in the Supreme Court. Two former IPS officers RB Sreekumar and Sanjiv Bhatt were also charged in the FIR on the basis of which Setalvad was detained yesterday.